The digital divide is a very real and very stable reality in communities like Oakland, California. Knowing which neighborhoods have solid access to high speed internet is a critical aspect of planning for government and nonprofit provided online services- if we want low income folks from Oakland’s flatlands to use a new digital application, we’d [...]

A well-established body of academic, clinical, and community-level research has demonstrated that conditions within housing units can deeply impact the physical and mental health of individuals in those units, for better or worse. In many areas, the literature is conclusive: just as a dilapidated apartment with a cockroach problem can trigger asthma in a vulnerable [...]

Did you think your postman/woman just delivered your mail? Wrong. They happen to be a rather awesome real-time crowd sourcing force for public data! When your mail is delivered and you turn out to not be there, and this keeps happening for a month, or for three months, your responsive public servants take note of [...]

Every year or two Oakland's Police Department rearranges the way policing is managed across the city, changing from 5 to 3 to 2 command regions, for various reasons. The map below lets you see the various configurations of police districting in Oakland, and yes we'll update this as soon as the new areas are provided [...]

Last year, the Oakland Unified School District decided to close 5 elementary schools. The decision was made to save the district an estimated $2 Million. Click on the image to see where these schools are located and to see an enrollment profile for school year 2011 -2012.

Between 2007 and 2011, there were over 10,500 completed foreclosures in the City of Oakland. While foreclosure activity peaked in 2008, the housing crisis has eased only in relative terms. In 2011, there were still over 1,300 new completed foreclosures in Oakland, and after a brief period of decline between May and October, foreclosure activity [...]

Like most measures of social outcomes and neighborhood indicators, crime is not evenly dispersed across the city, so a citywide average does not speak to the reality of every neighborhood in the same way. Our beat level crime maps are powerful tools for examining distribution and change in crime across our city. In 2011 we [...]

The City of Oakland and Urban Strategies Council have developed a new Stressor model for the city using the latest available neighborhood data. This model provides a rank for every Community Police Beat in Oakland that indicates the relatively high or low levels of 'stress' on a neighborhood. The new model has been adjusted to [...]

Wouldn't it be great if you and your neighbors could all chip in $5 to get the city to fill those nagging potholes quicker? Well you can...sort of. Commercial areas in California can form Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) -- recently rechristened "Community Benefits Districts" (CBDs) -- to create a new tax assessment and pay for [...]

These crime report hot spot maps were developed for the Oakland Police Department to aid with intelligence-led policing efforts, to provide resource management support and to aid in targeting crime suppression tactics. These hot spot maps depict crime reports of: Violent Crime, Property Crime and Burglary and are arranged by Command Areas for the 1st [...]